Editing Varro Atacinus

{{Short description|Roman writer and poet}}
'''Publius Terentius Varro Atacinus''' ({{IPA|la|ˈpuːbliʊs tɛˈrɛntiʊs ˈwarːoː atakiːnʊs|lang}}; 82 – c. 35 BC) was a [[Latin poetry|Roman poet]], more polished in his style than the more famous and learned [[Marcus Terentius Varro|Varro Reatinus]], his contemporary, and therefore more widely read by the [[Augustan literature (ancient Rome)|Augustan writers]].<ref name="Charles Thomas Cruttwell">[[Charles Thomas Cruttwell]], [http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_histromlit_2_1_1.htm ''History of Roman Literature'' (1877)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202162139/http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_histromlit_2_1_1.htm |date=2008-12-02 }}: Book II, part I, note III</ref> He was born in the province of [[Gallia Narbonensis]], the southern part of [[Gaul]] with its capital at [[Narbonne]], on the river Atax<ref name=EB1911>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Varro, Publius Terentius |volume=27 |page=924}}</ref> (now the [[Aude (river)|Aude]]), for his [[cognomen]] ''Atacinus'' indicates his birthplace.

==Writings==
  
Only fragments of his works survive. His first known works are {{Lang|la|Bellum sequanicum}},<ref name=Rose>H. J. Rose, ''A Handbook of Latin Literature'' (London 1967) p. 146</ref> a poem on [[Julius Caesar]]'s campaign against [[Ariovistus]], and some satires; these should not be confused with the ''Menippean Satires'' of the other Varro, of which some 600 fragments survive.  He also wrote a geographical poem, ''Chorographia'';<ref name=EB1911/> ''Ephemeris'', a hexameter poem on weather-signs after Aratus, from which Virgil has borrowed<ref name=EB1911/> and (late in life) elegies to Leucadia.<ref name=Rose/>

His translation of the Alexandrian poet [[Apollonius of Rhodes|Apollonius Rhodius]]' ''Argonautica'' into [[Latin]] has some fine surviving lines;<ref name=Rose/> and was singled out for praise by [[Ovid]]: “Of Varro too what age will not be told/And Jason’s Argo and the fleece of gold?”.<ref>A. D. Melville, trans., ''Ovid: The Love Poems'' (OUP 2008) p. 27 and p. 188</ref>  [[Oskar Seyffert (classical scholar)|Oskar Seyffert]] considered that the poem to have been “the most remarkable production in the domain of narrative epic poetry between the time of Ennius and that of Vergil”.<ref>O. Seyffert, ''A Dictionary of Classical Antiquities'' (London 1892) p. 619</ref>

Of Varro's fragments, the  [[epigram]] on "The Tombs of the Great" is well-known; whether or not it is truly Varro's is debatable:
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|la|Marmoreo Licinus tumulo iacet, at [[Cato the Younger|Cato]] nullo,	
[[Pompey|Pompeius]] paruo: credimus esse deos?}}
|
In a marble tomb [the freedman] Licinus lies; yet Cato lies in none
and Pompey in but a small: Do we believe there are gods?}}

==Patrons==
[[Cicero]] as well as [[Caesar]] have been suggested as possible patrons of Varro's writings.<ref>B. Gold ed., ''Literary and Artistic Patronage in Ancient Rome'' (2012) p. 91</ref>

==See also==
*[[Ennius]]
*[[Priscian]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|2|}}

==External links==
*[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338815215_Os_fragmentos_de_Varrao_Atacino_traducao_e_notas_Varro_Atacinus'_Fragments_Translation_and_Notes Fragments of Varro Atacinus], with Portuguese translation.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Atacinus, Varro}}
[[Category:Golden Age Latin writers]]
[[Category:Terentii]]
[[Category:1st-century BC Romans]]
[[Category:1st-century BC Roman poets]]
[[Category:82 BC births]]
[[Category:30s BC deaths]]
[[Category:People from Gallia Narbonensis]]
[[Category:1st-century BC Gallo-Roman people]]